TimesLIVE Podcasts Boots on the ground

Boots on the ground

In this short podcast series, we follow Sunday Times top investigative journalists as they cover the real stories that make-up SA’s national headlines.

Boots on the ground is a true piece of mobile journalism — all interviews, voices and sound effects have been gathered using nothing but smartphones.

Boots on the ground is a production of MultimediaLIVE, a division of Arena Holdings.

PLEASE NOTE: This podcast may contain explicit and sensitive content. Listener discretion is advised.

#Investigation, #Police, #SocialJustice, #Crime, #ServiceDelivery
Monthly English Explicit South Africa Documentary · News Commentary
41 Episodes
12 – 32

Why are SA’s most deadly convicted criminals up for parole?

In this week’s episode of Boots on the Ground: behind South Africa’s national headlines, we focus on the Van Vuuren and Van Wyk judgments that paved the way for lifers to be eligible for parole after 12 years and four months of serving their life sentence. Parole for lifers has…
1 Feb 2022 26 min

What is really going on with the parliament fire?

In today’s episode of Boots on the Ground: behind South Africa’s national headlines, we critically consider the information related to last week's parliament fire which held the country’s attention for the first week of 2022. What does a raging fire at a strategic national key point mean? Is Zandile Mafe…
10 Jan 2022 28 min

Hunting Ndlovu: the story behind the capture and prosecution of Rosemary Ndlovu

Family, for most, is a concept that represents togetherness, love and — despite the occasional conflict — a bond that supersedes most. But recently convicted female serial killer and former police officer Nomia Rosemary Ndlovu saw her family more as a living pay cheque, ready to be harvested at will…
16 Nov 2021 44 min

Where is the international outrage for Lindani Myeni?

KwaZulu-Natal rugby player Lindani Myeni had been on the phone with his wife Lindsay. He had told his wife he would be home “soon”, but Lindsay and their two young children would never hear from him again. Myeni was shot by officers in Honolulu’s police force while they were responding…
31 May 2021 41 min

The children orphaned by Covid-19

Grace Rohan cannot understand why at seven years old she no longer has a daddy while her mother, who is in her 40s, still has hers.The grade 2 pupil from Durban and her 18-year-old brother, Daniel, are mourning their father, José, who died of Covid-19 in February, a month after…
16 Apr 2021 26 min

Raped and then raped again: an 11-year-old's horror story

Somewhere in Burgersfort, Limpopo, there is an 11-year-old girl whose life will never be the same. She sits quietly on a bright red wooden bench beneath a tree, gripping her father's hand. Her parents fear she is on the verge of another epileptic fit. Since her second rape, the fits…
19 Mar 2021 15 min

One year of Covid-19: Reflecting on SA's biggest moments

Today marks exactly a year since the first Covid-19 case was confirmed in SA. Since that day there have been 1,517,666 confirmed cases and 50,462 Covid-19-related deaths countrywide. In this episode of Boots on the Ground: Behind SA’s National Headlines, we relive some of the most memorable moments from the…
5 Mar 2021 36 min

Covid-19 is no hoax, people are dying to keep you safe

South African front-line health-care staff have been tirelessly battling the Covid-19 pandemic since the country's first cases were recorded in March last year.  In the latest official figures,close to 47,000 South Africans have died as a direct result of the virus, and the actual death toll is estimated to be…
10 Feb 2021 22 min

Murdered over a mine: the story of Fikile Ntshangase's assassination

Six bullets. That’s what it took to silence 65-year-old KwaZulu-Natal grandmother and anti-mine activist Fikile Ntshangase. Her crime? Standing firm in opposition to the expansion of a coal mine in her community. In today’s episode of Boots on the Ground: Behind SA’s National Headlines, we look into the assassination of…
17 Nov 2020 22 min

Marikana | Justice delayed is justice denied

When the ninth anniversary of the Marikana massacre comes, the trial of the police officers implicated in the murders of five people who were killed at the mine on August 13  2012 — three days before the massacre — will be nowhere near conclusion. This as the court case, which…
30 Oct 2020 22 min

A war is raging: cash-in-transit heists escalate

SA’s cash heist season has struck early with armed gangs launching waves of deadly attacks which have already left 24 people dead and dozens injured this year. Criminologists and CIT companies say driving the surge, which began in August two months ahead of the annual November heist peak, is the…
17 Oct 2020 23 min

The killing of Kinnear: a community demands justice

In this episode of Boots on the Ground: Behind SA’s National Headlines, we look into the assassination of Lt-Col Charl Kinnear, one of SA’s most respected police officers and commander of the police's anti-gang unit.  The Boots on the Ground podcast is dedicated to unravelling some of SA’s biggest news…
10 Oct 2020 17 min

Survivors recount their farm attack experiences

When she hears of a farmer and their family brutally attacked, tortured or murdered, emerging Bloemfontein farmer Mimmie Jakobs has flashbacks to the moment three men burst into her home. Stabbed multiple times, beaten to a pulp, her jaw broken, face fractured and left for dead, Jakobs, who farms lucerne…
1 Oct 2020 23 min

The uncollected dead of Covid-19

A new directive from the health department that anyone who dies of natural causes outside a hospital be tested for Covid-19 before a death certificate is issued has thrown the funeral industry into confusion. The instruction, issued on Wednesday by health director-general Sandile Buthelezi, has sparked anger and confusion among…
17 Aug 2020 21 min

The collateral death toll of Covid-19

According to the official figures released on Sunday night, 10,408 people have died in SA as a result of the coronavirus.   While more than over 10 000 deaths is already a significant number, funeral parlours have reported a spike in the funerals they are being required to cater for…
10 Aug 2020 22 min

Prospective transplant patients face a Catch-22 decision due to Covid-19

It’s month four of SA’s national lockdown, and while most of us have begun to settle into the new normal, the danger Covid-19 presents for our country has not yet dissipated. SA is now one of only five countries to have recorded over a half million confirmed Covid-19 cases. While…
2 Aug 2020 19 min

Trouble brews over the latest alcohol sales ban

President Cyril Ramaphosa banned the sale and distribution of alcohol for the second time on July 12, citing “clear evidence”, that the use of alcohol places undue pressure on medical facilities. However, the president's evidence is still hotly contested in the Ministerial Advisory Committee. This episode of Boots on the…
27 Jul 2020 27 min

The fight to prepare: Will SA's hospitals be ready for the worst of Covid-19?

It's week 14 of South Africa’s national lockdown, and it is crystal clear that preparations of the most morbid sort are underway. From the development of field hospitals to the creations of added burial capacity, there is a mad dash underway in SA's health sector. The questions the country face…
12 Jul 2020 27 min

Lockdown day 100 | Complacency kills

Saturday the 4th of July, marks SA’s 100th day in lockdown. The country has progressed from a very daunting lockdown level 5 to what people are now calling lockdown level 3 lite. With the easing of lockdown restrictions many South Africans seem to have lost their fear of Covid-19, with…
4 Jul 2020 21 min

Witnesses relive the day Collins Khosa died

In this episode of Boots on the ground: behind SA’s national lockdown, we speak to the witnesses and victims who were present when Collins Khosa died. 40-year-old Collins Khosa died on April 10 after he was allegedly assaulted by soldiers.His life partner, Nomsa Montsa, alleged in an affidavit that Khosa…
20 Jun 2020 28 min
12 – 32